House GOP faces reality of a deal

This was supposed to be the easy part. House Republicans fanned out across the country for recess two weeks ago after securing some of the largest federal spending cuts in U.S. history and passing an audacious spending blueprint — a strong coda after a year in which the Democratic majority failed to pass its own spending plan.

They were met by an emboldened liberal base that turned out to town halls, grabbed headlines and rattled senior citizens.

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And now, in the weeks and months ahead, they face perhaps the toughest stretch of their young majority — an epic debate and eventual vote on raising the national debt ceiling that will once again create a clash between their conservative ideals and the cold reality of deal making in a divided Washington.

On top of that, House Republicans have stumbled on other fronts. They heard a mixed message from GOP leaders last week on rolling back subsidies for Big Oil, and they’re starting to discover divisions within the conference over an extension of several elements of the Patriot Act, the signature anti-terrorism law of the Bush administration.

The message from the rank and file of the House Republican Conference is that the upcoming debates, specifically the debt ceiling, are an essential part of why they came to Washington — even if these debates expose internal rifts within their party.

“This is our opportunity to get the ship turned in the right direction,” said Rep. Rick Berg (R-N.D.).

All of this comes as Democrats are feeling emboldened, Wall Street is worrying about the implications of a national debt default and Republican members are trying to figure out how to hold firm after a spending battle victory that failed to satisfy their own base.

In short, Republican leaders have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks to stay in control of message and policy.

The effort to rally their members in support of raising the debt limit begins in earnest Tuesday morning at 9 a.m., when GOP leaders face their conference in the Capitol basement over breakfast. It continues through May 13, when listening sessions between GOP leaders and rank-and-file members end and debt limit legislation will be rolled out.

In the first conference meeting back from recess, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is expected lay out his “top-line” negotiating points as he prepares to head to the White House on Thursday for the deficit panel convened by the Obama administration. Cantor will take the elements to the sessions with Vice President Joe Biden. The general consensus among Republicans is that the deal will again be cut by Obama and Boehner.

But in HC-5, the meeting room where Republicans huddle, they’ll find hordes of skeptics about the seriousness of failing to raise the debt ceiling. Many Republicans simply don’t believe the situation is as dire as it’s being presented.

“In my view, it’s a negotiating point because they want the debt ceiling raised without spending cuts and long-term cuts to spending,” Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) told POLITICO. “They want to make when we reach the debt ceiling sound as risky as possible. Do I think it’s serious issue? Yes I do. Do I think it’s what [Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner and the administration says? No I don’t.”